Many years ago the favourite phrase (for, though but a monosyllable, it was a phrase in itself) was Quoz. This odd word took the fancy of the multitude in an extraordinary degree, and very soon acquired an almost boundless meaning. Charles Mackay,
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, p240. (1841)1

The Story

• I. On The Origin of "Quiz"
• II. On the Origin of the "Origin of Quiz" in the Origin of "Quoz"
• III. Quoz!

Longer sources

• The Microcosm, No. XXIX - MONDAY June 4, 1787.
• The Quoz Song, 1789
• The Quiz Song, 1792
• Roads to Quoz, appendix, 2008